Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born in 1858 in Germany, the sixth child of Julius Wilhelm Planck and Emma Planck. Planck was nine years old when he entered high school, where his interest in physics and mathematics was greatly stimulated. After graduating at age 17, he chose a career as a scientist.
Planck entered the University of Munich in 1874 where he received his doctorate at the unusual age of 21. In 1885, he was appointed associate professor at the University of Kiel and four years later, Planck was appointed to the University of Berlin, where he remained for the rest of his active life. At age 42, Planck discovered the quantum of action, which today is better known as Planck's constant.
This discovery would earn him the Nobel Prize in Physics 18 years later. With this discovery, Planck began a profound revolution in physics. It would take time for physicists to recognize that the microphysical world, the world of atomic dimensions, could not be described by classical mechanics.
This resistance was natural since the concept of quantum energy fundamentally conflicted with all previous physical theories. It was only from 1905, with the work of Albert Einstein, that the quantization of energy began to be understood and accepted by the scientific community. Planck was among the few who immediately recognized the importance of Einstein's special theory of relativity.
Thanks to his influence, this theory was soon widely accepted in Germany. Planck held positions of great authority, especially among German physicists, and his decisions or advice were rarely questioned. His authority came from his moral strength.
His justice, integrity and wisdom were beyond doubt. It was completely normal for Planck to go directly to Hitler in an attempt to reverse the Nazis' devastating racial policies. Planck was a man of great emotional stability.
If he had been less stoic, he could hardly have resisted the tragedies that befell him throughout his life. In 1909, his first wife died of tuberculosis after 22 years of happy marriage, leaving Planck with four children. The eldest, Karl, was killed in action in 1916.
The following year, Grete, one of his daughters, died in labor. In 1919, the same fate befell Emma, his other daughter. The Second World War brought more tragedies.
Planck's house in Berlin was completely destroyed by bombs in 1944. Worse still, his youngest son, Erwin, was involved in the attempt on Hitler's life in 1944, and the following year was executed by the Gestapo. This merciless act destroyed Planck's will to live.
At the end of the war, American officers took Planck and his second wife, with whom he had a fifth child, to Göttingen. There, he died at the age of 89 in 1947. Planck will forever be remembered as one of the most influential scientists of all time for helping to redefine our notions of physics and our understanding of the nature of the universe.
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